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Social Development Theory - VYGOTSKY, Study notes of Sociology

Social development theory in social interaction, social interpsychological and language acclelerates cognitive development.

Typology: Study notes

2021/2022

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THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY
Vygotsky’s name may not be as recognizable as, say, Piaget, Pavlov and
Freud, who were his peers when he developed his theory, but ask anyone
studying psychology and they are bound to know who he is. He may have
died at the relatively young age of 37 in 1934, and it may have taken around
4 decades before his ideas were formally introduced and incorporated in
psychology curricula across universities in the Western world, but they have
since become integral to the study of psychology, particularly in the field of
educational and early childhood psychology.
Among his contemporaries, the one whose theories were scrutinized closely
in comparison with Vygotsky’s was Jean Piaget, a Swiss child psychologist
that came up with his Theory of Cognitive Development. We will try to point
out the differences between these two psychologists’ works as we move on
with the discussion.
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THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Vygotsky’s name may not be as recognizable as, say, Piaget, Pavlov and Freud, who were his peers when he developed his theory, but ask anyone studying psychology and they are bound to know who he is. He may have died at the relatively young age of 37 in 1934, and it may have taken around 4 decades before his ideas were formally introduced and incorporated in psychology curricula across universities in the Western world, but they have since become integral to the study of psychology, particularly in the field of educational and early childhood psychology. Among his contemporaries, the one whose theories were scrutinized closely in comparison with Vygotsky’s was Jean Piaget, a Swiss child psychologist that came up with his Theory of Cognitive Development. We will try to point out the differences between these two psychologists’ works as we move on with the discussion.

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory, or SDT, introduced two major principles :

  1. Cognitive development is limited up to a certain extent or within a certain range, at any given age of the individual; and
  2. An individual’s full cognitive development requires social interaction. These principles are encapsulated in three theories or themes: ➢ Social Interaction, ➢ The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and ➢ the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). I. Social Interaction Key concept #1 Social interaction plays a central role in cognitive development. It is ingrained in every individual, even as a child, to seek meaning in everything. Curiosity sets in early on during childhood, and you probably noticed how, even from a very young age, a person starts asking questions. He will be looking around, wide-eyed, wonder and interest in his observant eyes. It is safe to say that the individual has started the process of looking for or “making meaning”. And, in order to find or make that meaning, he has to look around him, be involved, and play an active role on the “road to discovery”. Cognitive – and human – development, according to Vygotsky, is a result of a “dynamic” interaction between the individual and the society. This dynamic relationship denotes a relationship of mutuality between the two. Just as society has an impact on the individual, the individual also has an impact on society.

elementary functions or abilities that will get them started on the road to their intellectual development. The elementary mental functions include those that come by naturally with birth and growth, without influence by an external stimulus. In other words, these capacities are not learned, involuntary, and often do not really require any thought on the part of the individual. Vygotsky even went so far as saying that most of these elementary mental functions are acquired by a child through genetics Examples of elementary or lower mental functions (LMFs) are:

  • Sensation. A child does not need to be taught that something is hot, cold, sweet, or bitter. His senses are will automatically deliver those messages to his brain, so he can react accordingly.
  • Hunger. There are bodily processes that are beyond a person’s control, and one of them is hunger. When an infant is hungry, he is hungry, and so he will show it by crying or acting restless. He does not need to be told that he is hungry since his body will manifest the fact.
  • Memory. To be more specific, natural or unmediated memory. Young children are able to immediately commit things to memory in a natural manner. A baby will instantly recognize the sound of his mother’s voice, or the taste of baby food. But that’s it. He won’t necessarily be able to associate
    • or subsequently recognize any association – the sound of his mother’s voice to those times that she sung him a lullaby to sleep, and he isn’t likely to identify that baby food to be the one that he really likes to eat. As the child grows older, and as his social learning increased through more social interactions, his elementary mental functions evolved into his “higher mental functions” or HMF. Unlike elementary mental functions, they are stimulated. They are taught, and they are learned in social settings or environments, and they often come with social meanings. The given examples include:
  • Language. As a child develops, so does his capacity for languages. The need to communicate to people around him – whether to express his discontent about something or to inform his parents that he is hungry or he has to go potty – will spur the need to learn languages. As he grows older and undergoes a multitude of other social processes, language learning will also advance, as well as his thought processes.
  • Memory. This refers to what comes after the child has gone past the natural memory stage. This time, his memory can be cultivated and controlled, and he now has access to memory aids and tools. He is now able to make the relevant associations, and he can pick the things that he deems must be memorized, using these tools. Examples of these so-called tools of intellectual adaptation, or tools that allow children to use their elementary mental functions more effectively, include mind maps, memory mnemonics, note-taking, and other visual cues and aids.
  • Voluntary attention. You may have heard toddlers and small children being described as having short attention span. That is because, at that age, their thought processes aren’t stable enough to sustain concentration on one particular object or thought. Sure, they can focus on one thing at one time, but they won’t really know what to do with that ability, and so they turn on to something else. Social learnings will arm the child with the ability of focus and concentration, and the ability to figure out what to do with it. He gets to decide which objects, actions or thoughts to focus on. Full cognitive development means that, eventually, he will be capable of selective or focused attention and shared or divided attention, and sustain it.
  • Perception. Through sensing, a child is able to recognize a sensory stimuli… but it ends there. His lack of perception skills will render him unable to interpret the meaning or significance behind it. Social interactions help the child’s level of perception, increasing his awareness and capacity to understand why things are as they are. The learning that Vygotsky referred to does not point to a specific type or standard, because he also acknowledged how cultural differences can cause

things, even the simple act of playing with a train set, with a running commentary of every little thing that they are doing. Stage 3 – Inner Speech The final speech development stage takes place once the child becomes older and starts growing toward adulthood, and he is able to use it to direct both his thinking and the resulting behavior or action. This does not require his thoughts to be voiced out loud, with all thinking processes done in his head. He can do mental calculations in his head, analyze a situation from all angles without saying a single word, and form an opinion without verbalizing his arguments. It is during this stage that the individual is now able to engage in all the other higher mental functions. Language involves speech – both its expression and comprehension. The two-way nature of communication requires that the language must be expressed or delivered, and it must also be understood. When expressed differently, or even erroneously, the recipient will receive a different meaning. This essentially means that language can dictate the way people look at things, and how they process information. It is powerful enough to have an impact on the rate or speed of cognitive development, given how it is connected or related to the other cognitive functions. For example, language can affect how a person perceives something. A country with a culture that recognizes only the primary colors and are unaware of the color called “champagne” is likely to perceive the hue as simply “a shade of pink”. In the same manner that an individual is more motivated to memorize something that is in a language he understands, and ignore one that is expressed in a language that is completely foreign to him. Learn about the benefits of a bilangual brain in the following video.

Key concept #4 Self-initiated discovery and collaborative dialogue aid in a child’s cognitive development. According to Jean Piaget, the inherent curiosity of young children pushes them to be actively involved in their learning, and motivate them to discover and explore new things by themselves. They are the ones to actively initiate the discovery and development process. For Piaget, this is self-initiated and hands-on approach in discovery learning is the best way for children to learn. Vygotsky agrees mostly with Piaget, except for the last part. He postulated that the social and cultural settings that children’s activities take place in requires social interaction and communication, and that the children learn best through these social interactions. They acquire knowledge and hone skills through these interactions, as well as the culture surrounding them, and these ultimately shape their cognition. Through the concept of “cooperative or collaborative dialogue”, a child may learn his first words, the alphabet, his first nursery rhyme and how to count from 1 to 10 from his parents. As he grows older, he will be interacting with tutors and teachers, who are likely to provide verbal instructions and model or demonstrate behavior that will, consequently, guide him. II. The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) Meet the MKO, a person with a better understanding and considerably higher or superior level of ability, skill or knowledge about a particular subject, task or process, than the person who is attempting to learn (also called the learner ). It is common sense, really. Why would you seek to learn from someone who knows less than you? The MKO often comes in the person of a teacher, a superior at work, or a peer with more experience. There are instances when he could be someone younger, but with more cultivated knowledge and skill. In this digital age,

What about the second, or middle circle? That gap, or that empty area between the inner and outer circles, is the Zone of Proximal Development. That is where the learning will take place. Vygotsky said that the ZPD is where the child will be given the most sensitive instruction or guidance, coupled with a lot of encouragement, from the MKO. Take note that the words used were “instruction” and “guidance”, as opposed to outright “full assistance”. This is because the MKO will provide just the right amount of guidance, and then allow the child to learn and develop his skills. By letting him do it independently, the MKO will help the child develop his higher mental functions faster, thereby speeding up cognition. Let us go back to the father and son example. The first few times, the father taught his son how to catch and throw the ball, holding his hand, teaching how to grip, pull back, and throw. After showing how it’s done several times, he will step back and let his son do it on his own. From time to time, he will give pointers and corrections but, for the most part, he let his son practice on his own. He did the same thing when teaching the other skills. Soon, the son learned how to figure things out on his own, so he starts practicing how to play ball by himself, not asking for help from his father unless absolutely necessary. When the son gave his father the camcorder, he showed him how to turn it on, and what buttons to push to record, zoom in, zoom out, pause, and other key features. Then he handed it over to his father, who practiced what he was just taught. Learning in the ZPD, as mentioned earlier, is facilitated with the help of an MKO, which is precisely why we said that these two often go together. The learning process, in itself, is a social interaction, which could be done directly or indirectly (with the use of technology, perhaps), between the learner and the MKO, who can be a teacher, professor, coach, mentor, or any older adult, or a peer or even someone younger, who happens to be

more skillful, experienced, or knowledgeable in the area, subject or discipline that is being learned.